Coal Tit ( Periparus ater )

Yet another bird shot, but not a species I manage to photograph often.  They are very common in the garden you can almost guarantee that if you look out you will see one.   So they should be easy to blip shouldn't they?

Well no.   They are remarkably fast and rarely stay in one place for more than a second or two even on the feeders.  I noticed this one was using the same place on a branch of the Berberis.  That gave me two advantages, having the camera set more or less for focus and pointing in the right direction.  Result!

A couple of random facts about Coal Tits.  If you feed birds and find Sunflowers popping up where to least expect them, blame Coal Tits.  They have a habit of taking them from feeders and hiding them for lean times.   The oldest known Coal Tit, proved by ringing is 9 years 2 months 25 days.